The House on Haunted Hill
by Enthusiastic Fish
Summary: An NCIS Halloween story. Directly inspired by the 1959 movie The House on Haunted Hill but adapted for NCIS. Tim vowed never to go back to the house again. But the best-laid plans often go awry. Can he survive another night? Nine chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** This story was inspired by two things: An Escape the Room challenge (that I never got this done for) and the 1959 movie _The House on Haunted Hill_ , starring the wonderful Vincent Price. If you've seen that movie, you'll see a lot of similarities although I've adapted it to fit with NCIS. It is a horror story and thus, not particularly long. I'm almost done with it and I think it'll be nine chapters total.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own NCIS or its characters. I'm just having some fun.

* * *

 **The House on Haunted Hill  
** by Enthusiastic Fish

 **Chapter 1: Prologue**

The car pulled up outside a large, abandoned house at the top of the hill. It was surrounded by trees, but the house itself was in a rather large clearing. Four young men got out, one of them was more than a little uncertain.

"I don't know about this."

"Come on, Tim! It's a real haunted house! Haven't you ever wanted to see what that's like?"

"Not really, Jack. Besides...doesn't this place belong to someone?"

"If it does, no one lives here, now. We won't be disturbing anyone. Look at those windows."

"Yeah, all those bars."

"Probably to keep everyone out."

"Except for the ghosts."

"Yeah, except the ghosts."

"I'd think that they'd _like_ having visitors. Gotta be boring, floating around in one place, never having anyone to terrify."

"I think I'll pass. Thanks, anyway, Landon. When you said I should come along for Spring Break to celebrate being an adult, I thought you were going to do something _fun_. This doesn't sound like fun to me."

"Come on, Tim. I'd think that a science nerd like you would _want_ to do this."

"What in the world gave you _that_ idea?"

"You're not supposed to believe in ghosts and stuff like that. It's not scientific, right? This is your chance to have science triumph over the supernatural."

"That's one of your dumber ideas, Dan, and you've come up with some doozies. I'll just be happy to go back, now."

"Nope. We're here. We're staying. If you want to _walk_ back, you can sure do that. Otherwise, you'll have to resign yourself to staying the night in the haunted house. It's at least 20 miles."

"Really, guys?"

"Really."

"Fine."

The four of them walked to the front door. Jack tried the door. Tim was hoping that the door would be locked. There were bars on all the windows. Surely, the door would be locked.

Alas. It swung open, easily.

"Ha! Look at that. The ghosts are welcoming us inside."

"Yeah. Great."

"Come on! Too late to turn back, now."

"Actually, I think this is the perfect time to turn back. We should go, guys. Really. I don't like this. I've got a bad feeling."

They grabbed him by the arms and led him inside.

The door slammed shut behind them.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

 _The next morning..._

The police car pulled up to the house. The officers got out and sighed.

"Really, why do these people think it's funny to break into houses like this?"

"Who knows. Let's just find them and get them out of here. Maybe spending some time under arrest will help."

"Maybe. I just hope that there's someone _to_ arrest. Remember what happened last time."

They walked up to the front door, wondering if it would be unlocked.

It was.

"They must have forced it open."

They stepped inside.

"Hey! You're trespassing! This is private property! Come on out and maybe it'll go better for you!"

The house was completely silent. Almost eerily so.

The officers pulled out their guns and started to walk through the first floor.

"Hello!"

"Maybe they left?"

"And left their car outside? I doubt it."

They opened the door to a parlor and heard a soft moan. They walked around and saw a man lying on the floor. Quickly, they hurried over to him. He was lying on his stomach.

"He's alive."

"Is he hurt?"

"Don't know. Sir, are you all right?"

Gently, they rolled him over. There was a large gash on his forehead, shallow but long and caked with dried blood. Otherwise, he didn't have a mark on him, but he was extremely pale.

Suddenly, his eyes opened and he looked at them in terror.

"Let me out of here! I want to go home! Let me out! Don't let them take me! No, no!"

"Whoa! Slow down, sir. Who are you talking about?"

"The ghosts! They're moving! Let me out!"

He seemed to be out of his mind, but they helped him up and supported him out of the house. As soon as he was out of the house, he sagged and started sobbing. They were almost carrying him.

"Is this your car?"

"No. It's Jack's. They took him. They took them all. All except me. They're all...gone."

"Who? How many?"

"Jack...Dan...Landon. They're gone! The ghosts got them all! They're moving! They're going to get me! Don't let them get me!"

The two officers figured that the man was on drugs or something, but it was clear that he was extremely freaked out. Maybe, he was genuinely crazy, but he was terrified of something and if there were other people affected like he was, they should know.

They got the man off to a hospital and called other units in to help out in the search. They found Landon in another room in the house, chained to the wall, covered in blood and absolutely insane. He never recovered. They found Dan's body stuffed in the chimney. He'd been stabbed nearly a hundred times.

They never found Jack.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

 _Present..._

"Got a call."

"Where?"

"The house."

There was only one place that could just be called _the house_. For the last thirty years, they knew, to some degree, what they'd find when called to _the house_. It was either a murder or a disappearance or vandalism.

They always hoped for vandalism, but that was the least likely. Unfortunately.

"Who's going?"

"You and me."

"Okay. Let's go."

They drove to the house and got out. There was a car in front.

"I hate this place. Every time we come here, I hate it more."

"Me, too. Let's just get it over with."

They reported that they'd arrived at the house and went inside.

"Police! Please, come out and make it easy on all of us!"

Silence.

Now, they knew that there were only two options. Nothing or a body.

After looking through two rooms, they found a body.

One of the officers knelt down beside the body.

"Well?"

"Dead. Stabbed, it looks like."

"That's a military cut."

"Looks like it."

"Then, we won't have to do this."

"If he's still active duty."

"Hopefully, he is."

"Fine by me. Let's get someone here to do the investigation. I'm more than happy to pass this off to someone else."

Gladly, they left the house and called it in.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Agent Gibbs, I need you in my office," Vance said.

Gibbs looked up and nodded. Without a word, he headed up the stairs, leaving Tony, Tim and Ellie all staring at each other.

"A new case?" Ellie asked.

"Has to be," Tony said, "but why would he have to get called up to Vance's office for it? That usually means things aren't normal."

"Yeah, that's weird. Usually, we just get the reports from Metro or whoever," Tim said.

"Well, we'll get told whatever is going on," Tony said. "I still have a report to finish, and I'm not giving Gibbs a reason to dole out the head slaps."

They all refocused on their work until Gibbs came down the stairs.

"Gear up. We've got a dead sailor in West Virginia."

"On your six, Boss."

They gathered their gear, none of them asking the question they wanted to ask. This seemed like a normal case. Why had Vance given it to him?

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim looked out the window of the car as they drove through the woods in West Virginia. Something about this road seemed familiar. He wasn't sure what it was, but it was starting to make him feel a little anxious.

"What's up, Tim?" Ellie asked.

"I don't know. Just...this seems familiar."

Ellie looked out the window and then back at him with some amusement.

"It's trees. How familiar could it be?"

Tim laughed a little. "I guess you're right. I don't know why I..."

He trailed off as Gibbs pulled off the road and onto a private lane. This was _very_ familiar. And he had a bad feeling that he knew exactly _why_ it felt familiar.

"Tim? What's wrong? You're looking pale."

"Uh...nothing. I... Are we almost there, Boss?" he asked.

Another turn in the road and they were suddenly in a clearing at the top of a hill. There was a house there.

A house Tim had vowed never to come back to.

 _But it's daylight. Nothing happens during the day. It's only at night. We'll be gone by then. It won't matter. No one has to know about it._

"Feeling motion sickness, McGee?" Tony asked from the front seat.

"Maybe that's it. The road is very twisty and bumpy. Just like being on the ocean."

Gibbs stopped the car and Tim forced himself to get out quickly. The house looked exactly the same as it had before. Bars on every window and only one single door in or out. He swallowed and tried to hold back the fear. It had been years since he'd been here. Maybe things had changed.

Right. They were here investigating a murder and he thought things might have changed. Would things have _ever_ changed for the better? He couldn't imagine that being the case. He also couldn't imagine sharing his experiences with anyone.

"Tim, are you sure you're okay?" Ellie asked.

Tim jumped a little and realized he'd been staring at the house almost without blinking.

"Yeah. I'm sure."

 _I'm sure I'm really really really_ not _okay._

He grabbed his pack and the camera and followed the others into the house, dreading every step that led him back into this chamber of horrors.

Gibbs pushed open the front door without any sign of unease. Tim wished he could be like that, but he couldn't.

"Body's back here," Gibbs said.

They walked into what looked like a ballroom. Right in the middle of the room was the dead man.

"McGee. Fingerprints."

Tim nodded and pulled out the scanner. He tried to keep himself from shaking as he knelt down to do his job. He scanned the man's fingerprints.

"Ensign Michael Egner," he said. "Just received his commission."

"Reported missing?"

"Not that I can see. Not UA. Looks like he's on leave."

"And he came to some random house in West Virginia? That's just weird. And why here? Who owns this place, anyway? It looks abandoned."

Forgetting that he wasn't supposed to know anything about the house, Tim answered Tony's question while starting to take photos of the body, trying to focus on the case only and not on past events.

"No one really owns it anymore," he said. "The last owner murdered his wife and was executed. No one has ever expressed any interest in it because it's supposed to be haunted."

There was silence greeting his statement. He looked up and saw them all staring at him.

"How do you know all this, McGee?" Gibbs asked.

"Have you been here before?" Tony asked.

"It's...kind of famous for being haunted. They call this place Haunted Hill." He prayed that no one would ask any more questions, that they wouldn't ask anything more about why he knew. He was trying to hold off the memories. No one had believed him anyway.

Unexpectedly, Ellie saved him.

"Oh, _this_ is the house on Haunted Hill? I'd heard about it before, too. I didn't realize it was so close to DC. A lot of people have been murdered here," she said. "It's usually locked up. I don't know how they get inside, but I've seen some of the stories about it. It was even featured on one of those supernatural reality shows."

Then, before they could return their attention to Tim, they heard voices.

"Where are we headed?"

"In here, Ducky!" Tony called.

"Ah, thank you," came Ducky's reply. "I was wondering if we'd somehow got to the _wrong_ opulent house on a hill in the middle of the woods."

Ducky and Jimmy came into the room, ready to do their part.

"Here we are. This is certainly a fancy house for such a remote location. I can't help wondering why it was originally built here."

Tim managed to bite his tongue this time. He would not answer that question. He wasn't quite sure what the answer was anyway, only what he had guessed from the period in which he had been obsessed with everything about this place. He probably knew more about this place than anyone else in the world.

"Well, maybe the dead guy will tell you," Tony said. "He doesn't belong."

"Interesting."

Ducky knelt down beside the body.

"The cause of death seems obvious," Jimmy said. "That's a lot of blood on the floor."

"A number of stab wounds, yes," Ducky said. "Any sign of the weapon?"

"Not in here," Gibbs said. "We haven't checked the house yet."

 _Please don't send me to check the rest of the house. Please don't send me to check the rest of the house,_ Tim said in his head. He wasn't sure he could keep his composure for much longer if he had to go through the house and see all the places he'd seen before, even in daylight.

"McGee..."

Tim looked up, hoping that he could just stay here and keep documenting the body. He had the camera, after all. It would make more sense. Right?

 _Please, Boss. Don't send me to check the rest of the house._

If he had been shouting it, he figured it couldn't be more obvious that he didn't want to check the rest of the house. Gibbs just looked at him for a moment and raised a silent eyebrow.

"...stay here and help Ducky and Jimmy. Tony, you and Bishop go check through the rest of the house."

"On it, Boss," Tony said. "Come on, Bishop. You can tell me all about the house as we go."

"I don't know _that_ much about it, Tony," Ellie said. "Most of it came from a TV show, and you know how they embellish those things. I wouldn't be surprised if there'd only been one guy who snapped and the others never happened."

"I wish," Tim muttered under his breath.

"What was that, Timothy?" Ducky asked.

"Nothing, Ducky. I'd only just started photographing the body and the area around it."

"That means that I can do the processing of the body, Dr. Mallard!" Jimmy said. "You can supervise!"

"Very well, Dr. Palmer. If you insist. You can carry on with your task, Timothy."

Tim smiled a little and nodded. This was something he could do. He only listened with half an ear as Jimmy and Ducky discussed the body, its position, whether or not it had been moved, how many times the man had been stabbed. He was just counting down until he could get out of this horrible house and leave it behind him. He had never wanted to come back and any time returning here would be too soon.

He looked around the room. It was fairly large. The floor had probably been a beautiful wood when it was new. Now, it was grimy, dirty, stained and...

"Someone walking over your grave, Timothy?"

Tim jumped and turned around. He forced a smile.

"What was that, Ducky?"

"You looked rather grim, for a moment."

"I'm just not excited about being here. Close to the weekend, new case..."

"Yes, I agree. Poor timing, but I dare say that this young man didn't choose to die."

"Yeah. They never do," Tim said. Then, he had to turn away to hide the expression he knew was on his face.

He could still hear Dan screaming...until the screams were replaced with the worse silence. He looked up at the ceiling, half expecting to see the blood dripping again.

 _No. Don't think about that. Focus on the job. Focus on something else. Anything else. Don't think about that._

He was so determined to take his mind off the past that he didn't notice the time passing.

"Well, it's getting dark outside, and I don't see any sign of electricity in this house," Ducky said.

Tim looked up and then looked out the window. Sure enough. The sun was going down.

 _No. No. No no no no no no._

"Where did Gibbs go?" he asked, trying to swallow his panic.

"I think he was checking on Tony and Ellie," Jimmy said, pointing out the door.

"Okay."

Tim walked out.

"Boss?" he called.

There was no answer, and Tim tried not to freak out. He was getting close, he knew.

"Boss?"

"What is it, McGee?"

"Ducky and Jimmy are about done. It's getting late."

"You in a hurry, McGee?" Gibbs asked, raising an eyebrow.

 _Yes. All I want now is to get out of this house before it's too late. We have to get out of here!_

Tim was screaming in his head, but he tried to keep himself calm and logical. The problem was that he couldn't think of any logical reason to leave right now. They had stayed all through the night at a crime scene before. It wasn't out of the ordinary. Leaving before fully processing the scene _would_ be strange.

"No," he said, lamely. "But I don't think there's...any electricity in here."

Gibbs looked at Tim closely.

"Are you all right, Tim?"

Conundrum. Did he admit to having a problem with the house and face his disdain or did he lie about it and risk having a meltdown?

"Yeah. Fine, Boss."

He turned away and walked back to the ballroom, looking at the front door. There was only the one door. No other way in or out. The windows were all barred. They'd all tried to break out through the windows. They had all failed.

Ducky and Jimmy were just putting the body in a bag, ready to leave.

"Here. I'll help you," Tim said.

He couldn't hide the shaking in his hands as he helped Ducky and Jimmy lift the body onto the stretcher.

They left him behind to document the space where the body had been laying.

It was really getting dark outside. Too dark. He was starting to shake even more. He couldn't operate the camera.

 _Get a hold of yourself, Tim._

He'd almost managed to convince himself that everything was going to be okay, but then, he heard the worst sound ever.

Ducky's voice.

"I can't seem to get the door open, Jethro. The door knob appears to be stuck. Neither of us can get it to turn."

The camera slipped from his hands.

Panic took full control of him, and he lost all ability to think rationally.

Tim turned around and ran out of the ballroom. He ran at the door, pushing past Gibbs who was just walking over to the door, pushing Ducky and Jimmy out of the way and he began to pull at the knob. He tried to turn it, but it wouldn't. Then, he started to pound on the door.

"No! NO! Let me out! Let me out of here!" he screamed.

The black began to close in on his vision and he felt like he was going to die this time.

The ghosts were going to get him.

Everything went dark.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"I think he may be coming out of it, Jethro."

The voice penetrated the thick fuzz in his brain.

"Timothy? Can you hear me?"

He thought that he might be able to open his eyes.

"Timothy."

He got his eyes open and saw a lot of people leaning over him, looking very concerned.

"Good. How are you feeling?"

Tim suddenly remembered what he'd been doing before the blackness, and he was heartily embarrassed. However, he was also trying to ignore the rest of what had led to that.

"Do you think you could sit up, Timothy?"

Tim nodded and let Ducky help him up into a sitting position. He looked around and saw that they were still inside the house and that it was darker than it had been. He swallowed audibly and tried not to freak out again.

"What happened?" Tony asked.

Tim still hadn't said anything, but he definitely didn't want to answer that question. He tried to focus on breathing normally.

"Y-You...couldn't open the door?" he asked, deliberately speaking slowly and very quietly.

"No. It's locked," Tony said.

Tim closed his eyes and swallowed again, nodding.

"We were just about to go look for another door."

"There isn't one," Tim said, keeping his eyes closed. "There's only one door and it won't open. The windows are all barred with the bars set in solid stone. We're stuck here. All night."

"And what will happen in the morning?" Ducky asked.

"It'll be open again, and we can leave...if we're still alive."

"If we're still alive?" Tony repeated. "What are you thinking is going to hurt us, McGee? We're the only ones in here."

"The only living things in here," Tim said, his voice shaking. "That doesn't mean there aren't other things. Horrible things. Awful, evil things."

"Are you saying ghosts?" Ellie asked. "Come on."

"You weren't here when it happened before," Tim said. Then, he took a deep breath and let it out. "I was."

"You were what?" Jimmy asked.

"I was here when the ghosts were moving. When they killed one person, drove another crazy and took one away. I saw them. I heard them. I was here all night."

"Try to make sense, McGee," Tony said. "Are you seriously saying that there are _ghosts_ in here?"

"You don't believe me. Doesn't surprise me. No one believed me before, either. They thought I'd been on drugs at first, but when the tests came back negative, they figured I'd just had a mental breakdown. Sent me to a shrink. I guess I'm lucky that they didn't think I killed Dan."

Then, suddenly, Tim opened his eyes and looked at Gibbs. He hadn't said anything, and even with how little Gibbs generally did speak, Tim knew that he would have asked a question or two...unless he already knew about it.

"You know," he said.

"Some of it."

"How?"

"Vance."

Tim nodded.

"Tony, you and Ellie go and see if McGee is right and that there's no other door."

"There isn't," Tim said.

"Stay together," Gibbs said, as they left.

"That won't make any difference. If they want someone, they'll get them. It didn't make any difference when we were all...here... together." Tim started shaking again, feeling like there was no way he could possibly survive the house twice.

Tim saw Tony and Ellie exchange significant glances. He figured that they were coming to the same conclusion everyone else had before.

"Stay together anyway," Gibbs said.

"Sure thing, Boss."

Then, it was only Ducky and Jimmy looking askance at him. Whatever Gibbs was thinking, it wasn't showing on his face. Tim didn't really care what anyone thought. Once the ghosts started moving again, they'd all see and believe.

Just like he had.

He could almost hear the horrible sounds again.

" _No! Stay away from me! Leave me alone! Dan! No!"_

He swallowed again and closed his eyes. Closed or open didn't make much difference in here.

"Timothy, would you mind telling us when this happened to you?"

Tim opened his eyes again. Ducky was speaking very kindly. As one would to a crazy person.

"In college. Spring Break. I was younger than my roommates. They said that it would be a fun adventure, staying the night in a haunted house. I didn't want to be there, but they made me come in. Then, it got dark...and the door locked. And we couldn't get out."

The shaking again. Tim stopped speaking and stared at the floor.

"Duck, give us a few minutes."

"Of course. We'll just be in the ballroom. We'll check the windows."

"It won't matter," Tim said, not looking up. "There's nothing we can do."

"We'll check anyway."

Ducky patted him on the shoulder and Tim heard him stand up.

"McGee."

Tim looked up at Gibbs.

"Yeah, Boss."

"Vance told me that you'd been in the house before, but what you're saying isn't what was in your file."

"That's because what was in my file was a courtesy after I'd _recovered_ ," Tim said. "Everyone knew that I'd have a hard time getting any kind of real job if it was known that I'd gone crazy and seen ghosts killing my friends. They covered it up."

"And how did you recover?"

"I figured out that no one was ever going to believe what I'd seen and experienced, no matter what I said. So I agreed with what I was told. I said what they wanted me to say." He smiled even though he had never felt less like smiling. "And what were the odds that I'd ever be back here again? I figured that it didn't make any difference because I'd never come back to this house, not ever. There's no amount of money someone could have paid me to get me to come back. And a few people tried in the beginning. I always said no. And here I am. It must be fate. I wasn't supposed to get away before. They'll get me this time."

"I don't see any ghosts right now."

"So? We have hours here. There's plenty of time," Tim said. "If you don't believe now, and I know you don't, you will. ...if you're alive at the end of it."

"They're ghosts, not people, Tim. How would they kill a person?"

Instantly, Tim heard the screaming in his head and he felt sick. He took a deep breath and tried not to throw up. It was bad enough to have the memories tucked carefully away in his mind. He didn't need to have them made into conscious thoughts by questions like that.

"Dan was stabbed," he whispered. "Over and over again. Dozens of times. Even after he was dead. He was stabbed. Then, they took him away. I heard Landon screaming. He was permanently committed to a mental institution. He was chained to the wall. Jack disappeared, but I heard him. In the basement. Screaming."

"Why not you?"

"I don't know," Tim said. "They threw me through the floor. I landed downstairs and then, the police were coming into the house. It was morning and the door was unlocked."

Tim didn't care if Gibbs believed him or not. It didn't matter. Right now, the only thing that mattered was that he was in the house again and he had no chance of surviving it this time.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony and Ellie were quiet as they headed for the back of the house, where another door would be most likely to be found. Both of them had flashlights and were checking the hallways for anything that might be an exit. Then, they discovered the kitchen. There were windows, but they were all barred.

"So...uh..." Ellie started.

Tony glanced at her. "Don't say it."

"I don't have to. Tim already screamed it."

"It was a long time ago."

"Yeah, but it wasn't enough time, apparently."

"We're looking for another way out of here, not talking about McGee's sanity," Tony said, firmly. "I don't see a door in here."

"Should we try the windows, then?"

"Might as well," Tony said, not admitting that he didn't particularly want to go back and confront an insane Tim who thought ghosts were going to kill them.

They each walked to one of the windows in the kitchen. Ellie had to reach a little to get to hers, but it didn't matter because she couldn't even get the window to move. It was bolted shut and the bolts were heavily rusted. Tony got his window open, but when he tried the bars, they didn't budge.

"I don't think this will work, Tony," Ellie said. "The windows are completely barred or bolted. Or both."

"I think you're right. We'll check the rooms on our way back and see if there are any doors in them, but I'm guessing that Tim was right and there are no other doors going outside."

"If he spent a whole night here, he had plenty of time to look," Ellie said in a low voice.

"Yeah."

They started back toward the front door, taking their time to open every other door that they could find. As Gibbs had instructed, they stayed together. While Tony didn't think there were ghosts in here, he felt an ominous presence, almost like he was being watched. It was so quiet whenever they weren't talking. No hum of noise from any electronics, no A/C, no nothing. Adding to that, the darkness whenever they looked away from where their flashlight beams hit.

All in all, he would be glad to get out of here and he didn't blame Tim for being a little freaked out.

...even if he hadn't been just a little freaked out. He'd been acting like a lunatic.

When they got back to the front door, Tim was still sitting where he had been after passing out. Ducky and Jimmy were in the ballroom again, and Gibbs was beside Tim. Tony could tell from the expression on Gibbs' face that Tim wasn't any better. The only improvement was that he wasn't screaming. Tony had to admit that hearing Tim scream the way he had was about the worst thing he'd ever heard in his life.

"Hey, Boss," he said.

Gibbs looked up.

"Any luck?"

"Nope. Nothing. A couple of windows in the kitchen, but barred in. The bars didn't budge."

"I told you," Tim said, staring at the floor. "There's no way out of here, unless we survive the night. Every window is barred. The basement has no windows. The house is made out of stone, not wood. The man who built this was determined to keep the whole world out. Something used to keep everyone else out can also keep us in."

"How do you know all this, Tim?" Ellie asked. She knelt on the floor and seemed to be trying to get Tim to look at her.

He wouldn't look up, but he did respond, at least. His voice was dull and empty, a kind of interim calm that could be disturbed at any moment.

"Because no one knows more about this place than I do. I was obsessed with it for a few years after...it happened. I had to know why this happened to us. I had to know what made this place what it was. I read about it. I researched. I spent hours every day just looking up information the house and what it was. I know as much about this house as it's possible to know."

"Did it help?"

"No...and it won't help us, now, either."

"All the windows are very secure," Ducky said, conveniently finishing his task right at the moment Tony and Ellie returned.

"I couldn't move them at all. With how old this house is, you'd think that there'd be some rusting or something," Jimmy said.

"Probably, there should be," Tim said.

Ellie looked up at Gibbs and then at Tony. She seemed at a loss.

Ducky walked over and knelt beside Tim, too. He turned Tim toward him and urged him to look up.

"Timothy, could you please tell me what happened? I don't need details, necessarily, but I need to understand what you are thinking."

Tim looked at him, and Tony saw the expression in his eyes. Haunted was the only word that would do to describe it. Tim looked haunted. In spite of his calm voice, he was still terrified and Tony got the feeling that it was only with a lot of effort that Tim wasn't having a complete meltdown.

"I was in college. It was Spring Break."

"Yes, so you said before. What about after you discovered that the door was locked?"

Tim swallowed audibly and closed his eyes. Whatever he had seen, it had clearly been extremely traumatic for him. Tony didn't doubt that _something_ had caused this...but ghosts?

"At first, we didn't realize it. We walked all through the house, but then, I said that I didn't want to stay the whole night, and I guess they felt the same way. So we went back downstairs, but the door was locked. Then..."

Tim trailed off. He looked over at Tony, then, up to the ceiling. Before Tony could follow his gaze, Tim leapt to his feet and lunged at Tony.

"Don't stand there! Don't..."

Tony backed away, wondering what Tim was going to do to him, but then, he looked at his hand. Little black drops from the ceiling were landing there, collecting in the space between his middle and ring fingers.

Tim grabbed his hand and stared at it.

"Too late. It's too late. They marked you."

"What? What are you talking about, Tim? The roof probably leaks. It's an old house."

Tim shook his head and sank back down to the floor.

"No. They marked Dan, too. That's what they do."

"Marked for what?"

"Death."

Even though Tony didn't believe in what Tim was saying, he still felt a little bit of unease about how calmly Tim was telling him that he was marked for death. He wiped the drops off his hand and stepped away from the spot as casually as he could.

"You say that happened to one of your friends?" Ducky asked, clearly trying to get everything back on track.

"Yes. Dan. The one who died."

"Did you all separate?"

"No. We were together. At first, we were just doing what you've been doing, trying to find a way to get out of the house. We weren't really afraid, just worried that we'd be stuck here. But then..."

"What?" Ellie asked. She was still beside Tim, too. "What changed?"

Tim looked at her with his haunted eyes. "The ghosts started moving. I know you don't believe it. I know that and I understand why you think I'm crazy, but now that you're all here, you'll see it, too. I just hope that you don't pay the same price we had to pay."

"What price? What happened to the others? You said that one died."

"Landon's been in a psychiatric hospital ever since. He wouldn't stop screaming, even when they took the chains off. I tried to visit him once, but the moment he saw me, he started screaming again and tried to kill himself. I never went back. Dan died, and Jack..."

"Yes, Timothy?" Ducky asked, still keeping his voice calm and nonconfrontational.

"Jack disappeared. They never found him. I don't know if that means he's dead or what, but he was screaming, too."

"How did they get to you if you were all together?"

"They separated us. We started seeing things. Landon, first. Dan went after him to bring him back. The ghosts didn't like that. Jack said that we had to go and help them, but it was so dark that I lost track of where Jack was. I ended up alone."

Tim started shaking.

"Timothy?"

"I wasn't alone for long. It was so dark in the house, but I could see...them. The ghosts. The bodies. They started to dance around me. When I tried to get away, they would change. Become horrible, horrible things. Then, I saw the bodies. The dead bodies. They grabbed at me, pulled me. And all the time I could hear Landon screaming. I heard Dan and Jack...until it was all quiet. So quiet. This place was like a coffin. I was dead. Trapped inside forever. I stopped trying to get away. I just let them take me. I fell through the floor, and the next thing I knew, it was light. There was light again. People were there. Real, living people. All I wanted was to get out of the house, get away from the ghosts, never let them near me again. Everyone thought I was crazy. I had to see a shrink for a long time. They said that I was replacing reality with fantasy because my mind couldn't tolerate whatever it was I saw. I can't imagine why my mind would conjure up something as bad as I experienced to replace something else. What I saw was bad enough."

His voice was so calm, but he was still shaking.

"McGee, what if they're right?" Tony asked, hesitant to do so since Tim seemed to have completely lost his mind.

Tim turned his frightened eyes onto Tony.

"I've thought of that, you know. I know you think I'm crazy, Tony, but I have thought of that."

"And?" Ducky asked.

"And if reality was worse than what I remember, then, it's no better than being afraid of ghosts."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Ducky looked at Gibbs and widened his eyes. Gibbs nodded and they both got up and walked away from Tim. Ducky glanced at Jimmy who nodded and took his place beside Tim. Tony was surreptitiously trying to wipe the stain off the back of his hand.

Once they were relatively secluded, Gibbs raised an eyebrow.

"Well, Duck?"

"That he believes this is without doubt. Timothy is _convinced_ that he saw ghosts and that these ghosts are responsible for the death of one of his friends."

"Why wouldn't we have known anything about this before? He didn't have any trouble when we were on that ship in the middle of the ocean."

"Because these ghosts only inhabit this one house. He can ignore them and everything they supposedly did simply by staying away from here. It's just bad luck that he couldn't."

"He could have said something. Vance already told me that he'd had a bad experience here."

Ducky laughed softly. "Be honest, Jethro. You can't really be expecting Timothy to admit to something like this. He already knows that none of us believe him. He doesn't expect anything different. However, I suppose this matters less than figuring out how to leave this house does. The longer we stay, the worse it will be for him. Already, he's showing extreme fear when the only thing that has happened is that the door won't open. Anything unexpected will be the ghosts, and with our only light source being the flashlights, I can't imagine that nothing untoward will happen during the night."

"What if we can't get out tonight?"

"The only thing we can do is try to keep Timothy sane, and no, I'm not exaggerating. With how awful his experience must have been, no matter what the reality was, being stuck here with no escape is going to push him closer to insanity than is safe. His mind could fracture just because of the renewed trauma of being stuck here for another night. He'll constantly be expecting something bad to happen."

"We stay together?"

"As much as is possible. There may be times when we have to separate, but no one should ever be alone, and no matter what, Timothy should _never_ be left alone, not for any reason. He must always have someone with him."

"You think the ghosts will get him again?" Gibbs asked.

"No. I think he'll assume it will happen and may start hallucinating," Ducky said, seriously.

"All right."

They walked back to where Tim still was sitting on the floor.

"Timothy, is there anywhere you'd like to wait for the morning?" Ducky asked. He figured that if there was any room in the house that didn't trouble Tim as much, he should be able to go there.

Tim just laughed.

"It doesn't matter where we are, where I am. Tony's already been marked. They know where we are."

An awkward silence fell as everyone's eyes shifted to Tony for just a second and he looked at his hand again. The marks were still there.

In that awkward silence, there was a strange sound. Tim's head came up and he looked around, breathing noisily through his mouth. Ducky could see his panic increasing and he knelt down.

"It's all right, Timothy. Calm down."

"No, it's not okay, Ducky," Tim whispered. "It's not okay. They're moving already. They'll start coming after us."

"Do you know _why_ they're doing this, Tim?" Jimmy asked.

Ducky looked at him in surprise. Jimmy sounded completely serious and his expression was simply concern and inquiry.

Tim shook his head.

"No, I don't. I never could figure that out."

There was a crash from somewhere upstairs, and Tim visibly jumped and he looked upstairs.

"Th-that's where... Landon and Dan..."

Jimmy put his hand on Tim's shoulder.

"At least, they're upstairs, not down here. We'll try to stay out of their way, then," he said, sounding surprisingly encouraging.

Tim swallowed and was clearly trying not to freak out, but it wasn't working at all. He was so scared that it wouldn't take much more for him to have a total meltdown.

"Hey, Tim. It's okay. They're not getting us yet, and you said that one of the reasons things went so wrong was because you ended up separated. We're not going to do that. We'll stay together and we'll try not to bother them, if we can. It'll be okay."

"It won't be okay. It won't," he said, but at the same time, he wasn't quite as freaked out. It was like the acknowledgment that there were ghosts had calmed him just a little bit.

Ducky was impressed in spite of himself. Whether he actually believed it or not, Jimmy's willingness to go along with Tim's current world view had helped keep Tim connected, even a little bit.

"What do you think that was, Boss?" Tony asked. "Do you think the roof might be coming down?"

"Maybe."

"I could go and check."

"NO!" Tim said. He jumped to his feet and grabbed Tony's shirt. "NO! You can't go up there! Don't go!"

"Whoa! Calm down, Tim. It was only a suggestion."

"No. You can't go up there. Don't go up there. Don't go up there."

"Okay, okay."

Tim closed his eyes and seemed to force himself to let Tony go.

"I'm sorry. I just... I can't be logical about this. I can't. I'm trying. I just can't."

He backed away from Tony and sank back to the floor. He covered his face with his hands and swore softly.

Ducky could see that they needed to get out of the house as soon as possible. Tim wouldn't last the night with any vestige of sanity. It was an old house. It would settle and creak. There would be strange noises, intimidating shadows. He was already stretched thin. They wouldn't be able to keep him connected to reality.

Then, he watched as Jimmy stepped in again. He put an arm around Tim.

"Hey, we get it, Tim. You're worried about us. Whatever else, something bad happened here and you're afraid of it happening again. We don't want anything bad to happen, either."

Jimmy looked up at Ducky and he had a worried look on his face. Ducky smiled encouragingly at him. He was doing his best, and it was the right way to go.

The question was what they'd do to get out. They had no tools with them. They were effectively stuck inside.

"The windows?" Tony asked, looking very awkward.

"All very solidly barred," Ducky said.

"Maybe there's something _in_ here that can help us," Tony suggested. "Maybe something that will help us dismantle the hinges, cut through the bars...melt them, something."

"Steel melts at about 2700 degrees Fahrenheit," Tim said in the same dull voice as before. "A typical campfire is only about 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. It won't melt steel. Even if it would, you'd have to build the fire around the bars, keep it going for hours and not let it cool down...without burning us alive."

"What about the door?"

"It's steel, too," Tim said. "They won't let us out. We're stuck in here until morning. If we live that long."

"We will, Tim," Jimmy said. "We're going to live that long. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because we have an edge that no one else has had."

"What?"

"You."

Tim looked at him and laughed incredulously, although there was an edge of hysteria in it, too.

"I'm not an edge."

"Yes, you are," Jimmy insisted. "Because you've been through it before. You know what to expect. You can tell _us_ what we need to do. You said that they separated you guys before and that's how they got to you. How did they do it?"

"Sounds," Tim said. "Strange sounds. Dan left and then..."

"Okay. So we just will have to ignore any of the sounds we hear, right?"

"It won't work. It won't work. They'll get us."

As if on cue, there was a huge crash directly above their heads. Something heavy had fallen. Some dust began to float down to them. Tim closed his eyes and started hyperventilating.

"Closer. Closer and closer."

"That was solid," Gibbs said. "That's not the sound of a ghost."

"What are you saying, Boss?" Tony asked, keeping his voice low. "That we're not the only people in here?"

"Yeah."

"I didn't see any sign of anyone before."

"Either they were hiding or there _is_ another way in here," Gibbs said, also speaking in a low voice. "It's a big house."

"You want to check?"

"No. Not right now. One thing I think McGee _is_ right about is that the sounds were meant to lure them away from the safety of the group. While we don't know what's going on, walking into the darkness is asking for trouble."

"Okay."

"Keep your eyes open, though."

"Right, Boss."

Then, there was a strangled sound from Tim. Tony and Gibbs whirled around to face him, and his eyes were wide open, pointing up the stairs. He seemed to be trying to talk, but he couldn't get any words out.

"There! I saw something!" Jimmy said, suddenly. "I don't know what it was, but I saw it, too, Tim."

Unlike Tim, however, Jimmy was just curious. Tim was nearly out of his mind.

Gibbs grabbed Ducky's arm. "Get him out of here. Take him into the ballroom or somewhere else, not in the entry."

"Of course."

Ducky couldn't agree more. While it would seem that Tim didn't care where he was, there were far too many places to see things and hear things that could lead him to assume there were ghosts.

He hurried back to Tim and Jimmy.

"Mr. Palmer, help me get him up," Ducky said, keeping his voice low and soothing.

It was questionable whether or not Tim had heard him in any case. He still hadn't managed to say a word.

"Okay." Jimmy started to lift Tim up. "Come on, Tim. Let's get off the floor and somewhere you can sit down on a couch or something, all right?"

At first, it seemed that they might have already lost Tim to his fear, but then, he nodded and stood up, letting Ducky lead them into the parlor, not the ballroom. The room was extremely ornate. Over the top in its decoration. Not only were there fancy drapes in all the windows, there was a large chandelier over the center of the room. The old furniture was still there, ornate couches and chairs arranged near a massive fireplace, and even a tray of decanters and bottles of wine. How long had they been sitting there, waiting for guests who had never come?

They got Tim to sit down on a couch by a large fireplace. There was wood there, but it had clearly been unused for a long time.

"Hey, Dr. Mallard, couldn't we try to start a fire?"

"With what, lad?" Ducky asked. "We have fuel, but nothing to start it."

"Yeah, we do! Maybe."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that I have gum in my pocket and we have flashlights with batteries."

"Will that work?"

"It should. I've seen it before. We just need something that we can have as our material to keep the fire going long enough to get the wood burning."

Ducky had thought that Tim wasn't even paying attention to them, but suddenly, he spoke.

"I have some kleenex in my pocket," he whispered.

"That'll help!" Jimmy said, looking at Ducky with some degree of triumph.

Getting Tim's mind on anything other than being trapped in this house seemed to help somewhat. Ducky could see that there was an edge of desperation in Tim's movements as he pulled out a few tissues and handed them over, but he even managed to look a little bit interested when Jimmy knelt down by the hearth and started preparing to try his little trick.

Ducky didn't know what Jimmy or Tim were thinking, but he was just hoping that it would work. A definite source of light and heat through this long night would be more than welcome.

He also hoped that it would distract Tim from realizing that Tony, Gibbs and Ellie had not come with them.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

As Ducky and Jimmy led Tim away, Ellie started to follow them.

"Bishop," Gibbs said.

She stopped and turned back.

"What is it?"

"Stay here."

She walked back over to where Tony and Gibbs were standing.

"Did you see anything?" Gibbs asked.

She shook her head. "I wasn't looking when Tim pointed. I missed whatever he saw." She hesitated. "Do you think he really saw something?"

"Yes," Tony said, firmly. "I don't know _what_ it was, but I think he saw _something_. I know that he's scared to death right now, but he's also a really smart guy. Bad things happened in this place in the past. It's not like it's just him. And Jimmy saw something, too."

"Did he? Or was he just trying to make Tim feel better?" Ellie asked.

"We assume that McGee saw _something_ , no matter what or who it was. We don't know who else is here," Gibbs said. "We stay together at all times. No splitting up, no lagging behind. Got it?"

"Okay, Boss. Are you sure that we should start looking around at all, though?" Tony asked.

Gibbs nodded.

"What are we looking for, then?" Ellie asked, seriously. "A way out or Tim's ghosts?"

"Both."

"Okay. Where do we start? Upstairs or down? There's a basement in here. I saw the steps going down there, but we didn't check that."

"Anything that might help us will probably be down there," Tony said, although he didn't seem particularly happy about that.

"Then, we go together," Gibbs said. "We all have flashlights and we do _not_ separate, no matter what."

Tony and Ellie both nodded. They got out their flashlights and headed for the door Ellie had mentioned. The stairs just seemed to go down into nothing. It was pitch black down there.

"Ladies first?" Tony suggested.

"Thanks, Tony," Ellie said, sarcastically, but she was determined to show that she wasn't intimidated by the idea of ghosts. There was no such thing as ghosts. That didn't change just because one person said so, even if it was Tim saying so. People had died here, but that didn't make the place haunted.

Still, she was hesitant as she took the first step down. Tony and Gibbs both shone their flashlights down ahead of her as far as the beams would go. She tested each step to make sure none of them had rotted. Walking into darkness was unnerving, even in the best of circumstances.

 _I'm not alone in here. Tony and Gibbs are right behind me._

She reached the bottom step and realized that the room must be extremely large.

"See anything, Bishop?" Tony asked.

"A lot of empty space," Ellie said. "Come on down. Plenty of room."

Tony and Gibbs came down and stood beside her, looking around the large basement.

"I don't know, Boss," Tony said, his voice getting softer. "Maybe looking around down here isn't a good idea. It'd be really easy for some...one to sneak up on us like this."

"That's why we're staying together," Gibbs said. "Let's get going."

Tony nodded, but Ellie could see he wasn't thrilled. He didn't want to walk around down here. It _was_ creepy, but still...

Suddenly, she felt a chill, as if she'd walked through ice or something. She shivered and looked around.

"Did you feel that?" she asked.

"Feel what?" Tony asked.

"That...cold. Maybe there's a draft or something."

"I didn't feel anything."

Ellie swallowed. "Maybe I just imagined it."

They started looking around for something that might help them get out, tools or something like that, but the basement appeared to be empty.

"Hey... What's that?" Ellie asked, pointing.

...or _almost_ empty.

There was a pile of something in the far corner.

Ellie looked at Tony and Gibbs and raised an eyebrow. Gibbs gestured and they started over to see what it was.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"Aha!" Jimmy said triumphantly. "Got it!"

The fire began to flicker as it ignited the tissues and the smaller sticks that Jimmy had put in there. He bent over and blew gently on the fire to encourage it to keep going. Ducky was sitting beside Tim, trying to be comforting. Tim was staring at the fire, wondering if it would really work and if it would make any difference.

 _Probably not. It's not about the light._

Still, he had to admit that the idea of having a good source of light was kind of nice.

"Looks like it's working," he said softly.

Jimmy looked back at him and smiled. He seemed really proud of himself. He was also the only one who had seen what he had seen. Tim really wanted to ask him what it was he had seen, but he also didn't want to think about it. It was so easy to remember, or worse to experience again, the feelings he'd had during that long night.

...but at the same time, there was potential for one single person to believe him. He'd never had that, not once. His parents had been sympathetic, but they had believed what the doctors had said.

The fire grew and he stared at it, wondering how much longer it would be before the ghosts showed themselves.

"Timothy?"

"Yeah, Ducky?"

"I hate to ask, but what was it that you saw?"

Tim took a breath and looked at Ducky. He saw the same kind concern he had seen in many people's eyes. It was the look of someone who assumed insanity in one he cared about. He sighed and looked back at the fire.

"It doesn't matter, Ducky. I know you think I'm crazy. What I saw will make no difference to you."

"On the contrary, it _will_ make a difference. I admit that I find it difficult to believe in ghosts, but I don't think you're in a state to hallucinate. I do think you saw something. It is merely the interpretation of that thing that we may disagree on."

Tim actually found that he could laugh a little.

"Thank you for at least being honest with me. I hated people pretending that they had any kind of trust in my account when I knew that every detail I gave was completely disregarded. No one believed me, then. I don't expect anyone to believe me, now."

"What if you _were_ mistaken?"

Tim shook his head. "Please, Ducky. Don't use the euphemism. Either I'm crazy or I'm right. There's no being _mistaken_. I know I'm on the edge of a meltdown, but I don't need you to give me some sop about making a perfectly understandable mistake. I only _thought_ I saw ghosts, that..." He swallowed and didn't elaborate. Giving voice to the details of that night only made them stronger in his mind. "Anyone would make the same mistake. Please."

There was a long silence.

"Timothy, I apologize."

That surprised him enough that he looked away from the fire and at Ducky.

"You do?" he asked.

Ducky smiled a little.

"Yes. I don't want to give the illusion that I suddenly believe in ghosts, but I have been treating you as a fragile patient, rather than the intelligent man I've known for many years."

"Well, I have to admit that my intelligence is pretty fragile at the moment," Tim said.

"I will promise not to disparage what you say, but could you tell me what you saw before we came in here?"

Tim sighed and nodded.

"I saw Jack," he said, trying to sound as sane and rational as possible. "He was standing up on the top of the stairs, looking down at me. He looked just like he did in college. That's what I saw. I saw Jack."

"I didn't get a good look, but it was definitely something that moved," Jimmy added. "I wasn't looking up there when you first saw it, though, so I can't say _what_ it was, but it was definitely _something_."

Tim smiled, but then, he looked around. His eyes widened.

"Where are the others? Where did they go?" he asked, feeling his panic rise.

"They're probably looking around the house for something to help us break out," Ducky said.

"No! No, they shouldn't do that! It's just asking them to take them!"

He jumped to his feet and, before Jimmy or Ducky could stop him, he ran out of the room, away from the bright firelight and into the darkness.

It was strange. The voices of Jimmy and Ducky faded away, and in spite of the darkness, he felt like he could see, like there was light coming from somewhere else.

"Come back!" he shouted. "Come back! Don't leave!"

There was a thundering sound and he suddenly realized that _he_ was alone in the dark. Just like before. He looked down a hallway and he froze.

White. That was what he saw. White and red. Blood.

"D-D-Dan," he whispered.

It came nearer to him. Nearer and nearer. He couldn't move.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

It was a body. Or what was left of a body.

Bones.

"Someone died here," Ellie said, softly.

"Yeah, but when?" Tony asked. "There's just bones left. It has to have been a while, a few years."

Ellie looked at the bones and then turned to Gibbs.

"Tim said that his friend, Jack, disappeared."

"Doesn't mean that _this_ is Jack," Gibbs said. "There have been other people killed in this house. We're down here to find a way out, not to investigate another murder."

"Right."

Ellie looked around the dimly-lit basement.

"I don't see anything down here. It's been cleared out. If no one has lived here for so long, it makes sense that it'd be empty. Maybe we'll find something upstairs."

"McGee didn't want us to go upstairs," Tony said.

"Because of ghosts," Ellie said.

Before Tony could say anything else, they heard someone shouting.

"Is that Tim?" Tony asked.

"Let's go," Gibbs said.

They started running up the stairs, thumping without care for the noise they were making. When they got back to the hallway, they started back toward the front of the house, but they heard voices coming from the other direction.

"Timothy! Timothy!"

"Sounds like in the kitchen," Tony said. "Let's go."

They hurried to the very back of the house and they found Ducky and Jimmy kneeling beside Tim.

Tim was bleeding from a large gash on the back of his head.

"What happened?" Tony asked.

"Let's get him back to the parlor and then ask questions," Ducky said, tersely.

Tony handed his flashlight to Ducky and helped Jimmy get Tim up. He was completely out and his head lolled back. As quickly as they could, they got Tim back to the couch in front of the fire.

Ducky began to probe the wound while Jimmy began tearing up some strips of cloth.

"What happened?" Tony asked, again.

"Timothy panicked when he realized you were not with us and he ran before we could stop him. When we caught up with him, he was standing back by the kitchen."

"Then, he jerked backward as if something pulled him," Jimmy said. "When I got back there, he was on the floor."

"Did you see anyone?" Gibbs asked.

"Not a soul," Ducky said.

Tim began to wake up, mumbling something.

"Keep the pressure on his wound, Mr. Palmer," Ducky said. "And try to keep him still."

Ducky gestured for Tony to help lift Tim to a sitting position as his eyes gradually opened.

"Dan," Tim said, almost in a groan.

"Isn't that the one he said was killed?" Ellie asked, in a whisper.

"Timothy, can you hear me?" Ducky asked.

"Dan." He started looking around, his eyes darting from place to place in the room, but never focused on the people in the room. "Can see the lights again. The lights."

"Timothy, can you hear me?"

He put his hands on Tim's face and tried to force him to make eye contact.

"Timothy."

"Can you see the lights?" Tim asked.

"Timothy!"

Tim finally seemed to focus on Ducky, but he wasn't really all there. At least in this case, some of it could be attributed to the head injury.

"What happened?"

"Dan," he said again. "Killed him. All that blood. The screams."

Gibbs was afraid that they were losing Tim to whatever had really happened in the past. He knelt down in front of Tim and turned him to face him.

"Tim! Stop it," he said. "Don't let this get you. You're not back there."

"Don't leave, Boss," Tim said. "Don't leave. That's how they get you. That's how..."

Gibbs shook Tim roughly.

"Jethro..." Ducky said, trying to intervene.

"Stop it, Tim! Focus!"

Finally, Tim seemed to hear him.

"I can't do this, Boss. I can't. I've seen them both, now. Dan and Jack. The only reason I didn't see Landon is because he's still alive. Alive and insane! I can't stay in this house!"

Gibbs could see it. He could see Tim trying to keep it together and he could see that he was failing.

"You'll get out. I promise. You'll get out. You just have to hang on."

Tim shook his head. "They're coming for me, Boss. I have to get out before they get me, but I can't. I can't get out."

"You'll get out. You just have to keep yourself ..."

He didn't get a chance to finish.

There was a crashing sound from directly above them. It was so loud that they could feel the vibrations. They all looked toward Tim to see what his reaction would be _this_ time.

There was a strange creaking sound.

"Tony! Look out!" Ellie shouted.

She grabbed him by the arm and pulled harder than she should have. Tony stumbled over and knocked the both of them to the ground. He was about to start berating her for it, but just as he did, the chandelier rope snapped and it dropped to the floor, right where Tony had been standing.

Tony looked at her and then looked back at the chandelier. It was so large that it likely would have killed him if she hadn't got him out of the way. He got to his feet and stared at Gibbs, his eyes wide. His gaze flicked down to his hand where the faint marks could still be seen and then to Tim who seemed to be frozen in place and then back to the chandelier. He swallowed audibly.

"Uh...wow. Thanks, Bishop."

Ellie stood up and nodded. "N-No problem."

"How did you know?"

She smiled weakly. "I've watched _Clue_ too many times, I guess. I heard the sound and I automatically looked at the chandelier."

Tony grinned back at her.

"Well, remind me to watch that when we get out of here." He paused. "Or maybe not. Maybe, I'll wait a little while before I watch that."

Ellie nodded in heartfelt agreement. She was even a little pale.

"Yeah, me, too."

"What _was_ that upstairs?" Tony asked.

"Someone trying to get us to go up there," Gibbs said. "So that's where we're _not_ going to go."

Tim was silent. It was a deafening silence from the couch where he was sitting. Gibbs turned his attention back to Tim, but he didn't know what to do to break through Tim's terror. Whatever had happened here before had pushed him over the edge and he deeply regretted bringing him back.

 _If I had known..._

But then, Gibbs had to admit that, if he had known the bare facts, he would have ignored it and expected Tim to deal with it, and he knew that Tim would never have told him the whole story. Why would he?

"Tim, talk to me."

Tim's eyes focused on him. "I told you he was marked."

"Hey, I'm just fine, Tim," Tony said. "Bishop got me out of the way."

"Yeah, it was just an accident," Ellie said. "It's an old house. No wonder the rope was rotted."

Tim shook his head slowly, not looking away from Gibbs.

"No. The rope isn't rotted. They did it."

Before anyone could say anything else, Tim got to his feet, swayed a little and then stumbled over to the chandelier and grabbed the rope and held it up.

"Look! It's not rotted! It's _not rotted_!" he shouted at them.

Jimmy hurried over and grabbed Tim's arm because he was still swaying a little. Then, he took the rope from Tim's hands and a strange expression crossed his face.

"It's not rotted, Agent Gibbs. It looks _new_ , not old. And that's weird."

Gibbs got up and walked over to the chandelier. Jimmy held out the rope. Gibbs took it. Sure enough, the rope wasn't rotted. Not even a bit. And yet, it had snapped. No sign of any cuts on the rope or anything like that. It was just snapped.

"Come on, Tim. You look like you're ready to fall over. Come back to the couch, okay?"

Tim's brief burst of energy seemed to be over and he leaned against Jimmy without further comment. Jimmy took that as agreement and he helped Tim back to the couch. Ducky helped him sit down.

Gibbs stared at the rope. A rotten rope would make perfect sense in a place like this. A rope that looked new did not make sense. Why was a new rope here? Then, he thought a little more. Tim had not been surprised by this. Why was that? Was it just that he assumed everything pointed to ghosts? Gibbs didn't want to believe that because Tim was just too smart. And yet, if he acknowledged that there might be a reason for it, he could be headed toward ghosts and he wasn't sure he could accept that.

If he had any respect for Tim, he had to give him a chance, even in this state. He dropped the rope and walked back to Tim. He gestured for Ducky to move out of the way and sat down.

"Tim, how did you know it wouldn't be rotted?"

Again, it seemed like Tim was out of their reach, like this had pushed him too far.

"Tim."

"Because this happened before," Tim said.

"What do you mean?" Gibbs asked. "What happened before?"

"The chandelier," Tim said, softly. "It almost hit _me_ last time. That was when we knew something was wrong."

"What chandelier?" Gibbs asked.

"Upstairs," Tim said. "There's one over the stairs, where a woman hung herself. She's the first ghost we saw. Just hanging there. Dan's the one who wanted to cut her down. The chandelier was there. Then, it snapped. Almost hit me. When we looked at it, there was nothing wrong with the rope. It just...broke. The woman looked at me and we ran away...to the front door. We tried to get out. That's when we realized that we couldn't. This house isn't normal. If it was before, it's not now. If you had asked the police, they could have told you about a _lot_ of people dying here. They're not always normal. There's no pattern to it because, after every person dies, there are more ghosts. Always more."

Gibbs stifled a sigh. He just couldn't bring himself to believe that ghosts were the culprits here. It made a lot more sense that there was just someone in the house with them. Still, he also couldn't bring himself to dismiss Tim's statements as products of insanity. He refused to believe that Tim was insane.

Suddenly, he was distracted from Tim by Ellie. She jumped and looked out toward the hallway. Gibbs stood up and turned toward her.

"Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" Tony asked.

"I thought I heard something out there. Someone talking."

"It's them," Tim whispered. "They're coming closer. Just like before."

Ellie looked back at the others.

"I didn't hear anything," Tony said.

"I heard it. It was very soft," Ellie said. "I wasn't making that up."

"Yeah. That's what I said," Tim said.

Ellie looked more than a little uncomfortable at the comparison.

She didn't get a chance to say anything, though. A strong wind blew into the room and suddenly the fire went out, plunging them all into darkness.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Nobody move!" Gibbs ordered. "Stay put!"

He pulled out his flashlight and got it on.

"Timothy!" Ducky said.

Tim was no longer on the couch.

"Tim!" Jimmy said. "Where is he? It was only dark for a few seconds. I didn't hear him running or anything. Where is he?"

The others got their flashlights on and searched around the room. Tim was nowhere to be found. For the first time, something had happened that Gibbs couldn't explain. Ducky and Jimmy had been right beside Tim. Gibbs had been maybe two feet away. There should have been no way for Tim to get around them and even if he could have, they would have heard it.

But he was gone.

"Now, what, Boss?" Tony asked.

"We look for him," Gibbs said.

"There's nothing else _to_ do," Ducky said. "But how..."

"Doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does," Jimmy said, sharply. "It matters a lot because how Tim vanished from this room tells us what we might find and where we might have to look. What if Tim has been right all along and there _are_ ghosts?"

"Come on, Jimmy," Tony said. "This is weird, but..."

" _You_ come on," Jimmy said. "There is no way that Tim could have got out of the room that fast without us hearing him, feeling him get up. He's not out in the hall. He's just _gone_. How are _you_ going to explain that away, huh?"

"Are you saying that you believe him?" Tony asked, incredulously.

Jimmy hesitated and then squared his shoulders.

"Yes! Because what's happened here makes no sense unless we allow for something that we can't explain. I saw something moving. Even if there _is_ another person in this house, that still can't explain how Tim disappeared like this. And if we have to deal with _both_ of them...that makes what we need to do harder because...how do you fight ghosts? They're already dead, and if they exist, these ghosts are evil."

Jimmy wasn't usually so eloquent, but Gibbs could see that he meant what he was saying. Whether he was right or not, he meant it, and there _was_ no logical explanation for Tim's sudden disappearance.

"Regardless of who the guilty party is, I think we can assume that we will have to venture upstairs. That is where all the sounds have come from," Ducky said.

"Do we split up?" Tony asked, relieved to get away from the awkward conversation.

"Two groups. No one is alone. Not ever," Gibbs said.

"Good idea," Tony said. "That's what always gets people killed in horror movies. They split up and go off by themselves."

Gibbs rolled his eyes and gestured. "Bishop, you go with Jimmy and Ducky. DiNozzo, you're with me. Let's go."

Gibbs pulled out his gun. Tony and Ellie followed suit. Then, Ellie hesitated and pulled a knife from her ankle. Gibbs raised an eyebrow.

"Tony told me you have a rule about always keeping a knife," Ellie said, a little sheepishly. "I know you guys don't have guns, but here's _something_." She gave the knife to Jimmy.

Then, they started out of the parlor and up the stairs. Tony and Ellie had been up there earlier, but it was amazing how different the house looked in the darkness. Just the flashlights. That was all they had, but at least, they each had their own.

When they reached the top of the stairs, there was a heavy curtain to their right and a long hallway to their left. Gibbs gestured to Tony and then, he faced the curtain. Tony had his gun ready. Quickly, Gibbs whipped the curtain back and Tony moved in to aim at whatever might be there.

It wasn't a window. It wasn't even a wall. The curtain had covered another hallway.

"We'll go this way," Gibbs said, softly. "You go down that way. Check inside the rooms, but always stay together."

They nodded and started on their way. Gibbs gestured to Tony again and they began to walk down the hidden hallway. It wasn't exactly a secret passage, but it was strange that it was covered this way. Why? There didn't seem to be any doors.

"Boss...where do you think he is?" Tony asked.

"I don't know."

"How did he get by you?"

"I don't know."

"You think Jimmy's right?"

Gibbs smiled a little. "I don't know."

It was _really_ quiet. Dark and quiet.

"There's a door," Tony said, pointing ahead a few feet.

Just the one door. They walked up to it. Closed tightly. The door handle was extremely ornate, and strangely, the hinges indicated that the door would open into the hall rather than into the room.

"You ready?" Gibbs asked, keeping his voice almost to a whisper.

Tony nodded.

"On three."

Tony took position on the other side of the door and took a deep breath. Gibbs raised his hand and counted silently.

Then, he turned the knob and pulled open the door.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"There are a lot of doors," Jimmy said. "I can see six just from here."

"Yeah," Ellie agreed. "I guess that's why there are three of us."

Ducky smiled, but he felt that Ellie had been acting a little strangely ever since she had claimed to hear something.

They got to the first door.

"Okay," she said. "You open. I'll be ready to fire...if necessary."

Ducky nodded and grabbed the knob.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes."

Jimmy had the knife in his hand and his flashlight raised up to illuminate the room.

Ducky threw open the door and shone his own flashlight inside while Ellie aimed.

The room was empty. Not even any furniture. They carefully scanned every inch of the room and saw nothing.

"Nothing here. Let's go to the next room," Ellie said.

"Sounds like a plan."

They started down the hall.

"You seem a bit on edge, Eleanor," Ducky said.

"Aren't you?" Ellie asked. "Tim is missing."

"Yes, but I feel that there's more to your tension."

"No. There's not," she said and strode forward to the next door.

They went through the same process, but this time, the room had furniture in it. It was a bedroom. Ellie walked forward into the room, flashlight up and gun at the ready.

Ducky and Jimmy started to walk in after her when the door suddenly swung shut, leaving them in the hallway and Ellie in the room.

"Eleanor!"

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"Okay. What is this place? A fun house?" Tony asked.

They were staring at a wall. The door had led to...a wall.

"Not having much fun, DiNozzo," Gibbs said, grimly.

"That's because fun houses are never fun, Boss. They're lame at best and creepy or annoying at worst. This is on the annoying side."

"Not creepy?"

"Not yet. At least, this wall isn't creepy. It's just annoying."

Gibbs tapped on the wall with his flashlight. It was definitely solid, but not very thick.

Then, to his surprise, there was an answering tap.

No other sound, just a tap on the wall.

"Okay...that's creepy," Tony said. "What now?"

Gibbs looked at him and then tapped on the wall again.

Another answering tap. The problem was not the tap itself. It was the utter silence otherwise.

"Eleanor!"

The shout startled them both and they ran back down the hall, leaving the strange wall and the tapping behind.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Ellie turned around as the door swung shut, plunging the room into complete darkness. It was strange. She couldn't hear a sound coming from out in the hall, even though the door was unlikely to be soundproofed. She picked up her flashlight and turned it back on. Then, determined to stay calm, she grabbed the doorknob and tried to turn it.

It wouldn't budge.

She pounded on the door.

"Ducky! Jimmy! Let me out!"

She couldn't hear any reply.

She turned back toward the room so that at least her back was to the door, not empty space.

"It's just an empty room," she said. "It's just an empty room."

Then, she felt a cold draft waft over her and she shivered.

 _Is it?_

She jumped and whirled to the side. It was like someone had whispered in her ear.

"Who's there?" she asked and then mentally kicked herself for being so stereotypical. If whoever had whispered that had good intentions, he or she wouldn't be trying to scare her like this.

Then, she saw the lights.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

It was black. He had opened his eyes once, but it was black and so he had closed them again. He had sensed the moment he was no longer sitting with the others and was...wherever he was.

He would take black over the lights. The last thing he had seen during that first night had been the lights. He never wanted to see the lights again.

He was trying not to move, trying not to breath. He was sure that something bad would happen if he revealed his current state of consciousness.

Then, he heard what sounded like a low growl and he couldn't stop himself from twitching.

There was a clink.

Still with his eyes closed, he moved his legs again.

Another clink.

He moved his arms.

Another clink.

 _I'm chained to the wall. Like Landon._

He could feel the panic starting to build up. What was going to happen next?

As he tried not to move, he could feel the panic rising higher and higher until he was hyperventilating, almost whimpering.

Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. He opened his eyes.

And saw the lights.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"What happened?" Gibbs demanded, as he and Tony reached Ducky and Jimmy.

"I don't know, Jethro. We were just about to check out this room when suddenly, the door closed. Eleanor is inside. She was just a step or two ahead of us!"

"And the door won't open," Jimmy said. "The knob won't even turn!"

"What does she say?"

"Nothing. We've knocked on the door, but there's been no reply."

Gibbs strode to the door and pounded on it heavily.

"Bishop!"

Nothing. Just that empty silence.

"Can we break it down?" Tony asked. "This door isn't steel. It's just wood."

"Try it."

Tony nodded and holstered his gun. He ran at the door and it sprang open almost as if it hadn't even been latched. He stumbled forward into the room, Gibbs right on his heels.

What they saw wasn't horrifying, but at the same time, it almost was.

Ellie was standing motionless, facing away from them. She didn't move, not even when the door burst open.

"Ellie!" Tony said.

He ran over to her and turned her around.

Her face was white, her eyes so wide that they looked to be bulging out of her head. She was barely breathing. At the same time, her body was completely rigid.

"Ellie," he said again.

"Bring her out here to the hallway," Ducky said.

Tony did, basically carrying her because she didn't move or respond.

As he got her out of the room, she suddenly relaxed and sagged against him. He lowered her to the floor and Ducky leaned over to check her.

"Eleanor, can you hear me?"

There was no response, but then, her eyes moved and focused on Ducky's face.

"Lights," she whispered.

"What happened?" Ducky asked.

"I saw lights," she whispered. "They were dancing."

Ducky looked up and Gibbs knew what he was thinking. Tim had said the same thing.

"Eleanor."

Then, she took a deep breath and blinked for the first time. She looked around, seeming confused. Then, she looked over and saw Tony and Gibbs and she sat up very quickly, the color coming back to her cheeks.

"Gibbs! Tony! What... What's going on?"

"You tell us," Tony said. "What happened in that room?"

She looked back toward the room.

"Uh...the door closed."

"Yeah. You wouldn't answer us. What happened?"

"Lights. I remember lights. It was dark and then, it wasn't. There were these strange lights all around me. ...and then, I was out here."

She looked around again.

"And there was a voice telling me that we needed to leave."

Gibbs looked in the room, shining his flashlight inside. There didn't appear to be anyone in there.

"Are you feeling all right, Eleanor?"

"I'm a little...weird, Ducky," Ellie said. "Nothing is quite...normal. I don't even know how to explain it. It's...strange."

"Can you get up?" Gibbs asked.

"Sure. I think so."

Jimmy held out a hand and pulled Ellie to her feet. She wobbled a little bit, but then took another breath and nodded.

"I'm okay," she said. "You didn't find Tim down that way?"

"No. Just a creepy door that opened onto a wall," Tony said. "...with someone or something tapping on the other side of it."

"What?"

"Gibbs tapped on it, and someone tapped back."

"That _is_ creepy," Ellie said. "What now?"

Gibbs looked at Ellie closely. There was still a bit of a glazed look in her eye, although it was infinitely better than how she had looked when they had first found her in the room.

"Ducky, you take Ellie back to the parlor. See if you can get the fire going again," he said. "We'll keep looking."

"I'm okay, Gibbs!" Ellie protested.

"Then, you can keep an eye on Ducky," Gibbs said.

Ellie sighed and nodded. "Fine."

They walked back to the stairs and kept an eye on them until they got to the parlor. Ducky gave a thumbs up for them to get back to work and then they were back in the hallway.

"But where do we go next?" Jimmy asked. "Back to that place you found or continue on?"

It was a hard question to answer because, while there was definitely something odd, it was still a wall. Maybe they could find another way into that space, whatever it was.

"Let's keep on this way and then go back if we don't find a way into that other room."

They nodded and continued on, but Gibbs couldn't thinking about Ellie because she had still been a little spacey. What had happened to her? What were those lights she had reported seeing? Tim had said something about lights, too. What were they?

After the shock of the room Ellie had been trapped in, it was strange that all the other rooms were simply empty or shabbily furnished bedrooms. No more lights, no more doors slamming shut.

"Okay. Now what?" Tony asked.

"Another curtain," Jimmy said, pointing.

"Oh, joy."

"But we have to find Tim," Jimmy said. "We can't just give up."

"I didn't say that," Tony said. "Same as before, Boss?"

Gibbs nodded.

"On three."

Gibbs counted silently and then Tony pulled the curtain aside.

...and then fell back in shock and swore loudly.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"Is...is it a ghost?" Jimmy asked in a whisper.

It was a woman, hanging from a rope. She was just hanging there. White. Dead. The body seemed to sway just a little bit, back and forth as if in a breeze. Gibbs brought his flashlight up and she faded. When the flashlight beam moved away, she was back to great detail.

Then, while the three of them stared at her, her eyes suddenly opened and she looked at them.

"He killed me," she said.

Jimmy didn't know what the others were thinking right at this moment, but he was thinking that the only reason he wasn't shouting and running away was because of how in-your-face this was. No more mystery, no more uncertainty. It was a dead woman talking to them. How else could they take this?

"He killed me," she said, again.

"W-Who?" Jimmy asked.

"He killed all of us."

Then, she faded away.

There were a few seconds of complete silence. Then, Tony swore again.

"What was _that_?"

"What do you think, Tony?" Jimmy asked. "That was a ghost."

"It couldn't be," he said.

Jimmy forced himself to laugh. "What else? I don't see any projector. Do you?"

"What now, Boss?" Tony asked, ignoring Jimmy's question.

"We go on," Gibbs said.

"Okay."

He pulled back the curtain again and there was nothing there. They started down another side hallway. Jimmy hated the silence. He'd never realized just how much sound he was accustomed to. Even when it was quiet, it wasn't really silent. This was silent. Oppressively so.

They kept walking. Halfway down the hallway, something walked out of the wall and turned toward them.

It was a young man, maybe twenty years old. There were stab wounds visible all over his torso, although he was as white as the woman had been.

"He killed me," he said. "He killed all of us."

Then, before they could do anything, the man kept walking and passed through the opposite wall.

"Another ghost."

"Tim said that we'd see them."

"But they're not doing anything to us," Tony said. "Well, nothing besides scaring me into an early heart attack. He also said that they'd kill us. Not that I'm complaining, mind you."

"What about Ellie?" Jimmy asked. "That wasn't just being scared."

"I don't know."

"Keep moving," Gibbs said. "We must be getting closer."

"Closer to what, though?" Tony asked. "Tim or the person who killed them?"

"Either one."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"There. Not quite as smoothly as Mr. Palmer, but we have a fire again," Ducky said.

"Good," Ellie said, softly. "There's something about a fire. It's...life. Nothing else in this house is life. It's death. The best thing that could happen to this place is for it to burn down."

Ducky turned away from the fire and saw Ellie staring at the fire blankly.

"Eleanor?"

"No, I'm not all right, Ducky. You don't need to ask."

She stood up and started to walk away, but then, she turned back to the fireplace, as if drawn to it. She walked back and knelt down directly in front of the fire.

"What did you see in that room?"

"Lights, but not like the fire, not even like the flashlights. They were...death. Death lights. They were all around me. I couldn't move. I felt like the life was being sucked away, leaving just nothing behind. Then...in the hallway, it was like my life was back."

"Perhaps it was. You certainly looked pale when Anthony brought you out."

"It was awful."

Ellie shook her head and looked away. Then, she sucked in her breath sharply. Ducky turned to follow her gaze and found himself stunned.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

It was a real voice. It was a voice he recognized. He opened his eyes. It was pitch black, but he could almost discern a human shape.

"They listen to me. They have to. They belong to me. They brought you to me."

The voice was so familiar.

"Who's there?"

"Don't recognize my voice?"

Tim couldn't reply.

"It's been a while."

Still no response from Tim.

"I would never have thought you'd be here again, but now that you are..."

There was a laugh.

"Let's have some light."

Tim was terrified to have light. All the lights he'd seen in this house after dark had been terrible. He tried to pull away, but the chains clinked, reminding him that he couldn't move.

Then, there were lights. Those awful sickly lights that did nothing to make things better.

And what he saw didn't make things better, either.

His shock was so deep that it finally got a word out of him.

"Jack."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"Caitlin," Ducky breathed.

Kate smiled. "Nice to see you again, Ducky."

Ducky didn't know what else to say. Here he was, staring at a woman he had personally done the autopsy on.

Ellie stood and backed away. Ducky stopped her. He put a comforting arm around her shoulders and decided that, given her recent experience, it was up to him to get them onto an even keel.

"Caitlin...you're...looking well."

Kate laughed. "I'm dead, Ducky. You don't have compliment my looks."

But it was true. She seemed almost more than alive at this moment. Everything about her was vibrant, including her voice.

"I have to admit that I wasn't expecting to see you."

"I've never been here before, but...I got permission to come."

"From whom?"

Kate smiled. "Not at liberty to say. Who's this?"

"This is Eleanor Bishop," Ducky said. "She is the most recent member of Jethro's team...and she's had a very bad experience."

"Well, that's why I'm here."

"What do you mean?" Ellie said, almost inaudibly.

"This place," Kate said. "It's evil. It's wrong. It shouldn't be here or like this. And you guys might have a chance to fix it."

"Fix it? How?"

"By stopping the person who's created this black hole."

"Timothy is missing."

"I know. Gibbs and the others are getting closer, but they're getting closer to the person responsible as well. I'm not allowed to go upstairs. That's where the other ghosts are. You guys need to get up there to warn them. I can't guarantee the ghosts won't see you and try to stop you, but the one thing you need to remember is that the people who were killed were _not_ killed by ghosts. They were killed by human hands. The ghosts can be frightening, but they can't kill you."

"You're certain?"

"Almost." Kate smiled again. Then, her smiled faded and she looked back. "I can't stay any longer, Ducky. It's time for me to leave. Ellie, it's nice to meet you. I hope you guys can get through this. Oh, and one more thing: Tim was right that the front door doesn't open at night, but there is more than one door. You just didn't go high enough."

Then, she was gone.

Ducky could feel Ellie's trembling.

"Well, that was definitely unexpected," he said.

Ellie nodded.

"Are you prepared to venture back upstairs?"

She nodded again.

"That was Kate?" she asked.

"Yes. Exactly as I remember her. Even her personality was the same. It's a shame you never got the chance to know her."

"You seem pretty accepting of this, Ducky."

"That's probably because I tend to trust my own judgment, perhaps even more than I should. I saw Caitlin with my own eyes, and I know that she's been dead for more than a decade. Not only did I go to her funeral, I was responsible for her autopsy. And yet, here she was, and we both saw her, not just me. If it had just been me, I might question but you, who never knew her, also saw her. Now, I will take both her warning and her advice seriously. You're still armed?"

Ellie nodded.

"Good. Now, acknowledging that you have gone through something I cannot understand, are you prepared for possibly meeting this person Caitlin told us was responsible?"

Ellie took a breath and then stepped back from Ducky's comforting arm. She pulled out her gun and checked it.

"Okay. I'm sorry for falling apart like that, Ducky."

"Oh, no, Eleanor. This was a terrible event for you and there's no reason to apologize or to feel embarrassment for it."

She smiled a little and then took another breath. "Okay, Ducky. Let's go."

"Very good."

They walked out of the parlor and headed for the stairs, flashlights in hand, Ellie also with her gun out. Ducky could see that she was shaking just a little bit, but it was understandable. He just hoped that she would not be adversely affected if confronted by another ghost.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Surrounded by the lights that had terrified Tim before, he saw Jack. Alive. But his eyes were terrifying in a way that the ghosts had never been.

Jack was insane.

And in a strange way, it actually helped. The ghosts had been terrifying, but that was because he had assumed that they had been the ones to kill Dan and take Jack away. How could a person fight against ghosts? There was no way. They had driven Landon into a permanent state of insanity, but here was Jack. Alive. It now made a lot more sense that Jack was the one who had killed Dan.

That one thought penetrated Tim's terror and got him to think about that time through new eyes. Coming to the house had been Jack's idea. While they had been together when Dan and Landon had started screaming, Tim had been alone when Dan's screams had stopped. What had he seen tonight? Had it really been Dan or had it been Jack? He didn't know.

Jack smiled at him as if he could read Tim's mind. The smile was as terrifying as anything else he'd seen in this house.

The lights were flying around the room, illuminating his crazy eyes.

"You were screaming...in the basement," Tim whispered. "I couldn't hear what you said, but...you were screaming."

For a moment, Jack's expression wavered. Then, his insane smile returned.

"I've never had a repeat visitor before. When they come with me, they don't leave," he said. "Except you. After I killed Dan, I couldn't find you. I tried, but I couldn't find you. Where were you?"

"How did you get out of the house? They looked for you."

Jack smiled again.

"There's more than one way in and out. Can't you feel the air?"

Tim realized that there was a draft. He hadn't noticed it before because of his fear.

He tried to look around, but he couldn't see anything besides Jack.

"Landon got out, too."

Jack laughed again. "Did he? I think he's still here."

"Now what?"

"Now, I add you to the ghosts. I have you again."

Jack lifted a knife in his hand. It looked like it had been used already. Perhaps many times. He could see the dried blood on the blade and on his hands.

"You'll never leave here again."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Ducky and Ellie paused at the top of the stairs.

"Which way?" Ducky asked.

"It makes more sense if they kept on down the way we were. More doors," Ellie said.

"I agree."

They started down the hallway together. Ellie was ready to fire. Ducky hoped that she wouldn't accidentally shoot someone they knew.

After they were halfway down the hall, Ellie stopped.

"Ducky?"

"Yes?"

"Are you certified to fire a gun?"

"Why, yes."

She lowered her weapon and held it out.

"I think it would be better if you had this."

"Why?"

"Because I'm afraid that I'll freak out and shoot one of the others. I'm still really edgy."

Ducky smiled encouragingly and took the gun. He _was_ certified, but he didn't make a habit of shooting very often. Just enough to keep certified. He patted her on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, Eleanor. I'm feeling more hopeful than ever that we'll get out of here."

"Why?"

"Because Caitlin was here. If there are ghosts, I'm glad to know that there is at least one on our side."

"I wish I could be that confident," Ellie said. Suddenly, she turned away from him.

"Eleanor."

She just shook her head and wouldn't look at him.

"I don't know what those lights were, but I've never felt so afraid as I did when they were all I could see."

Ducky put the safety on the gun and then put his arm around Ellie's shoulders. Perhaps this wasn't the time for encouragement and comfort, but he could see that she needed it.

"It's going to be all right, Eleanor. It is. We're going to get out of here. I promise. For now, let's just get to the others and help them find Timothy."

Ellie took a deep breath and let it out slowly, clearly trying to regain control of herself.

"Okay. I'm ready."

They continued down the hall and reached the curtain.

"You pull back the curtain and I'll be ready for whatever is on the other side," Ducky said.

Ellie nodded and grimaced. She stepped forward and grasped the curtain. She quickly pulled it back.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Here's another door," Jimmy said. "Ready?"

Tony and Gibbs took up position and aimed. Jimmy whipped open the door and then, they saw...

...a wall.

"And another wall," Tony said with a sigh. "Is this the same place where the other door was?"

"Could be," Gibbs said.

Then, they heard something and turned just as the curtain was pulled back.

Gibbs and Tony both turned their guns down the hall as a bright burst of light nearly blinded them.

They started down the hallway when suddenly Ellie stepped forward...and up.

Her eyes were closed and she started walking up into the air. When she was about a foot or two off the ground, she stopped.

"Eleanor," Ducky whispered.

Gibbs was now confronted with something he most definitely couldn't explain with any possible non-supernatural explanation. Tony and Jimmy stopped where they were.

"Ellie," Tony said. "What's happening?"

Then, her eyes opened. They were white. She looked down at them all.

"You should not be here," she said.

It wasn't Ellie's voice. It was deeper. Still feminine, but a very different timbre.

Ducky came closer.

"We didn't have a choice. We can't get out."

"You are not welcome."

"Fine," Tony said. "Open the door and let us out!"

"I cannot do this. There are too many here who should not be. Get them out of here and leave us to our home."

"Who do you mean?" Ducky asked. "Who else is here?"

"Ghosts."

"Um...no offense, ma'am," Jimmy said, tentatively, "but aren't _you_ a ghost?"

The white eyes turned toward him.

"The ones you seek are through the wall. Take them from this place and leave us to ourselves. You are not wanted. Leave."

"Can we have Ellie back, please?" Tony asked. "We may not belong here, but you don't belong in her."

"I do not, but I cannot communicate, otherwise. I will leave her if you will leave here."

"As soon as we can get out," Gibbs said. "I promise."

There was a long pause while the white eyes stared at him.

"I will hold you to that promise. Do not break it or I will see that you regret it."

Then, Ellie's eyes closed. Wind rushed through the hallway, knocking them all back a step and Ellie abruptly fell to the floor.

Ducky ran over to her and knelt down.

"Eleanor. Eleanor!"

He rolled her over on her back and her eyes gradually opened.

"Ducky," she whispered. "Can I go home, now?"

Ducky smiled.

"Hopefully, soon. How are you feeling?"

Ellie slowly sat up.

"Better, actually. I'm feeling better. What just happened?"

"I believe you were the conduit for a spirit who wants all of us to leave."

"Did she open the door, then?"

"No, but she did say that Tim is through the wall," Jimmy said.

Ellie turned around and saw the others. Gibbs raised an eyebrow.

"You all right?"

"Yeah, Gibbs. I'd rather come along with you guys than go back. I'd rather we stay all together."

"Okay."

Tony hurried over and helped her up and then gave Ducky a hand as well.

"Okay, if we're supposed to get through the wall, then, how are we going to do that?" Tony asked. "Break down the wall?"

"But there should be a way in if there's a guy doing this," Jimmy said. "He wouldn't be breaking down the wall every time."

"So where would it be?" Ducky asked.

Surprisingly, Ellie was the one who answered.

"That room I was in," she said. "We didn't really look at it as closely as we probably should have because of what happened." She swallowed a little.

"Are you prepared to return to that place?" Ducky asked.

"If it ultimately leads us out of here, absolutely," Ellie said, nodding firmly.

"Let's go."

They headed back down the hall, back to the room.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"You killed Dan," Tim said, trying to fend off Jack.

Jack laughed.

"What? Did you think it was the ghosts? They can't kill on their own."

Tim swallowed. It didn't change the death of Dan or Landon's insanity. It just meant that a living man was responsible instead of a dead one. He didn't bother asking why. Jack was clearly crazy and he wasn't sure that knowing his reasons would help him feel any better.

He tentatively moved his legs again and this time noticed that he wasn't really chained down. The chains were wrapped around his legs, but he wasn't directly attached.

"I think we're done, now," Jack said.

He started to walk forward.

Tim watched him approach, feeling his fear increase. The strange lights were swirling around his head as he came closer. The closer he got, the more frightening he was.

Then, he paused.

There were voices. Not ghosts. Real people. Jack turned away, looking angry at the interruption. Then, he smiled and laughed.

"Friends of yours? I heard the others. I'm surprised that the ghosts didn't keep them away. They don't like intruders, you know."

Before Tim could stop him, Jack reached down and grabbed his gun.

"It won't be like the others, but a gun kills as well as a knife. Doesn't it."

"No."

"I think I'll kill them first and let you watch. I let Landon watch. You think you can survive it better than he did?"

Then, Dan appeared, staring down at Tim. He was followed by others. Too many others. The spirits surrounded him, but he could still easily see Jack, getting ready to kill again.

Tim lay where he was, unsure that he could tolerate it if all his friends were killed by Jack. He could see that Jack meant it. He had to do something to prevent another murder. He couldn't stand knowing that someone else died at Jack's hands.

No. Never again.

He would not accept it.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

They opened the door to the room and stepped inside quickly, Ducky and Jimmy were on flashlight duty.

Ellie hung back a little bit, but nothing happened. No suddenly closing door, no strange lights.

They began to look around the room, all with flashlights, Tony, Gibbs and Ellie with their guns.

"Hey...guys? I think it might be back here," Jimmy said in a low voice.

"Why do you say that," Ducky asked, turning around.

Jimmy lowered his flashlight where he'd been looking in a closet.

There was a ghostly severed human head staring at them. Translucent blood dripped from the head and collected on the floor in an ever-widening pool.

"He killed me."

No matter how many times they saw these ghosts, it was always a moment of pure panic. In this case, Jimmy swallowed a couple of times and backed away.

"He killed all of us."

This one didn't disappear. It was just there. Staring at them with its white eyes.

The others had just disappeared.

"Okay. What now?" Tony asked. "Do we walk through it?"

"Is there something back there to look for?" Ducky asked.

"I think so," Jimmy said. "I didn't even...notice...it at first."

"Then, we should go on."

He started forward, but Gibbs stopped him.

"I'll go first, Duck," he said, grimly.

He walked toward the severed head that was just staring at them.

"You know, if this were a horror movie, that head would suddenly start eating him or something," Tony said.

"Good thing it's not, then," Gibbs said and stepped through the head.

It didn't react.

Gibbs started to look around. There was a corner and went around it. Out of sight.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"Hey, Boss! Wait!" Tony said and hurried behind him.

When he got around the corner...

"Where did he go?" Tony said. "I don't see him!"

That brought the others into the closet, running through the severed head. Jimmy stumbled and ran into Tony, pushing him forward a couple of steps.

"Hey!" he protested, turning around to berate Jimmy for running into him.

He saw nothing but blackness behind him.

"What the–?"

A hand grabbed him from behind and he let out an undignified shout.

"Quiet, DiNozzo!"

"Boss! Where are we?"

"Not where we were," Gibbs said, tersely. "Quiet!"

Suddenly, Jimmy appeared in front of them, followed quickly by Ellie and Ducky.

"Where are we?" Jimmy asked.

"Shut up, Palmer!"

"What happened?" Ellie asked, in a whisper.

"The same thing that happened to Timothy. We've been transported somewhere else in the house," Ducky said. "We should ascertain our whereabouts."

They all pulled out their flashlights and then paused. They were in a hallway, and there was light near the floor ahead of them, perhaps coming underneath a door.

"I feel a draft," Tony said. "From over toward the light."

The light wasn't normal, and Tony didn't like thinking that. However, there was something...sickly and evil about it.

"Do we go there?"

"Only place to go that I can see," Gibbs said. "Carefully."

There was a pause and then, the shape that was Gibbs moved toward the light. Tony followed, hating the silence, hating the light ahead of them, hating the whole situation.

Then, there was finally a sound. It was welcome simply because it wasn't a ghost. Tony hoped, anyway.

"NO!"

It was Tim, Tony would swear to it.

There was a burst of maniacal laughter.

And another burst of light, right in front of them, blinding them briefly after the darkness of the hallway. When their vision cleared, there were more ghosts.

A man and a woman, both covered in knife wounds.

"He killed us," they said.

"Well, he's not going to kill _us_ ," Tony said. "Instead of telling us that, why don't you help us stop him?"

The white eyes turned on Tony.

"He killed us."

"These aren't ghosts," Ducky said, suddenly.

"What are you talking about? Look at them!" Tony said.

"Yes, I am. They are shades, not ghosts."

"What's the difference and does it matter?"

"Yes, it matters," Ducky said. "They're not independent beings. They are leftovers. Ghosts are the spirits of the dead. These can't hurt us. They're not even really there, unlike the ghost that took control of Eleanor. They have not done or said anything independent. Frightening, to be sure, but not dangerous."

"In other words, we can ignore them."

"Insofar as we are worried about injury, yes. The reason for their existence..."

"Doesn't matter because McGee is in that room," Gibbs said.

He started forward again, passing right through the two shades.

He was almost to the door when there was a commotion from the other room. A clink of chains, a loud thump and a gun going off. Once. Twice. And yet, no shouting, no screaming. Not even that laughter they'd heard before. That was enough to get them all running for the door, weapons at the ready.

The lights vanished.

They were now in complete darkness.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Gibbs didn't stop moving. In fact, he sped up and ran at the door. It burst open as he collided with it, but he then stumbled because there was a body on the floor and his flashlight flew from his hand.

"Look out, Boss!"

The voice was Tim's, but, while there was a kind of hysterical tinge to his warning, he didn't sound nearly as panicked as he had been before.

But then, Gibbs didn't have time to think about it because there was suddenly someone on top of him.

He couldn't see a thing, but he could hear heavy breathing as the man tried to overcome him. He heard clinking chains, but it was so dark that all he could do was grapple with his opponent.

Then, there was another burst of light. He almost regretted it because it allowed him to look into the crazed eyes of the man he was fighting with. He could hear faint ghostly voices as he tried to fend off his attacker.

 _He killed us. He killed all of us._

"Stop! Stay where you are!" Tony shouted.

Then, it was dark again and he heard the chains again and suddenly, the man he was fighting with was pulled off him.

Gibbs rolled up to his feet, feeling for his gun. There was a new sound.

As if someone was choking.

Then, finally, some flashlights came on.

What Gibbs saw shocked him more than almost anything else during this long night.

Tim was on the floor, chained to the wall, but somehow, he'd managed to get a chain around the man's neck and he had pulled it tight with his legs. His expression was one of fear and fury combined. He was clearly out of control. No wonder, given the situation, but Gibbs couldn't let Tim kill a man.

"Tim, let him go."

No response. The man would be dead in not too much longer. Quickly, Gibbs holstered his gun and ran over. He grabbed Tim's legs, pulling them together to loosen the chain.

"DiNozzo!"

Tony ran over and grabbed the man, pulling him away from the chains, but before he could recover, putting cuffs on him as he gasped for breath.

The strange thing was that Tim wasn't making a single sound. He was sitting there, on the floor, staring straight ahead with that same expression on his face.

"Tim, can you hear me?"

"Get him unchained, Jethro. He needs to be freed," Ducky said, coming over with the flashlight. "There must be a key to these chains."

"I'll check this guy," Ellie said.

Tony covered her while she searched him. He had a key ring in his pocket. Ellie grabbed it and brought it over. She knelt down in front of Tim.

"Tim, it's okay. We've got him. We're going to be all right. One of these keys has to be to the chains."

She started checking each key. Tim still was staring off into space without any reaction.

"Come on, Tim. Snap out of it," Gibbs said. He looked at Ducky. "Have we lost him?"

"I don't know. We can't know that until he's in a situation where a normal reaction might be expected."

"This one!" Ellie said, suddenly.

She started to undo the locks and then she and Ducky hurriedly removed the chains holding Tim to the wall. His arms fell limply to the floor.

Ducky pulled him away from the wall.

"Timothy. Timothy, please, hear me. You're safe. We're all safe."

"That might be overstating the case a little," Tony muttered.

Gibbs glared at him and Tony kept up his watch over the man they'd found who wasn't moving much.

Gibbs turned back to Tim.

"You saved my life, McGee," he said. "We're all still alive."

"The lights," Tim whispered. "I can still see the lights."

"Just flashlights, Tim," Ellie said. "I saw them, too. These are just flashlights."

Finally, Tim's eyes closed. It was better than the vacant stare. He started breathing heavily.

"Timothy, it's all right, now. We're all here."

"It's Jack. It's Jack. It was always Jack. I didn't know. I didn't know it was him," Tim whispered.

"Tim! Snap out of it!" Gibbs said, raising his voice for the first time.

Tim jumped and opened his eyes.

"Boss. You're alive?" Tim asked. "He was going to kill you."

"We're all alive. Even Jack."

"There's another way. He said there's another way out. We have to get out of here. We have to get out."

Tim still seemed more than a little freaked out which, again, was understandable, but as he suddenly lurched to his feet, Gibbs was afraid that this had all been too much and had pushed him over the edge right when they had a chance to get away.

Tim started walking around the room, seemingly at random, pacing back and forth, looking pretty much insane. Gibbs got up and walked over to him.

"Tim."

But Tim didn't respond. He suddenly stumbled forward, away from Gibbs and toward a dark corner of the room.

"Ducky..." Gibbs said.

"No, Jethro. I think there's a method to this apparent madness. I have also heard that there's another way out of this place."

"You have? From who?" Tony asked.

"Caitlin."

Tony looked like he wanted to scoff, but then, he looked around the room and seemed to think better of it.

Ducky walked over.

"I feel a draft, here, Timothy."

"I did before," Tim said. He was still slightly on the wrong side of sanity, but he was a little more in control.

He was feeling around, so Gibbs took a deep breath and walked over to add his flashlight to search. Jimmy came as well, leaving Ellie and Tony to watch Jack.

"Here!" Tim said. "It's a slot."

He began tugging on it and, with a groan, it began to move.

"It looks like an old pocket door," Ducky said in amazement. "I don't even know where we're at in this house. That strange portal seems to have..."

He trailed off as Tim got the door open and a burst of cool night air washed over them. Tim plunged forward and didn't stop until there was another door. The ceiling was now slanted, which would normally indicate that they were at the very top of the house, in the attic.

"Caitlin said we hadn't gone high enough," Ducky said, softly.

"But there weren't any other stairs going up," Jimmy said.

"That appears to be unnecessary."

Then, Tim was pushing open another door. He stumbled out onto what looked like a metal fire escape. Then, his nervous energy left him and he sank to his knees, resting his head on the railing. Ducky quickly joined him.

"I'm outside. I'm outside. I'm outside," he said, over and over again.

"Palmer, go back and tell Tony and Ellie to bring our murderer. We're getting out of this house. Right now."

A burst of wind blew him backwards suddenly and howled around his head and he looked around. Then, feeling just a little foolish, he spoke.

"I told you we'd leave when we could. We're leaving now. Let us go."

The wind stilled as suddenly as it had begun. He swallowed and looked back as Tony and Ellie came, dragging the man Tim had identified as Jack, with Jimmy leading the way.

When they were all out on the fire escape, it seemed much more rickety than it had before, but it was their only choice and so they had to try it.

"Do you smell smoke?" Ellie asked, suddenly.

"No...I... yeah," Tony said.

"But how?" Jimmy asked. "The fire was out!"

"I got it going again," Ducky said, "but it was well-contained, wasn't it, Eleanor?"

"Yeah. There's no way it would spread...unless someone helped it along."

"Someone...or something. Let's get down."

Gibbs wanted to go down first, since he felt responsible for all these people, but at the same time, it didn't seem fair to make Tim wait after his brush with insanity and possibly death.

"Ducky, help McGee down."

Ducky nodded and urged Tim to his feet. They started down the stairs, each step sending vibrations through the entire structure. But they made it to the ground and Ducky waved.

"Tony, Bishop. You go next."

"No! No, they're mine! You can't take them from me!" Jack suddenly shouted and pulled away from them. Tony lost his balance and fell down a few steps while Ellie grabbed for him to stop his fall.

Jack careened into Gibbs nearly sending him over the railing and plunged back into the house.

"No! NO!" Jack screamed.

Jimmy grabbed Gibbs by the arm and pulled him back upright. Then, he turned to go back into the house after Jack.

"No," Gibbs said. "Leave him."

"But what if he does this again?"

"We said we'd leave when we could," Gibbs said. "We're leaving."

The screaming inside began to take on a different tone, seeming less insane and more terrified.

"No! No! I did what you said!"

"What now, Boss?" Tony asked.

"We get out of here," Gibbs said, grimly. He little wanted to leave a man to whatever was facing him in that house, but he had a bad feeling that he would not be welcomed after he said he'd leave.

As if in confirmation of his thoughts, another burst of wind pushed them backwards, carrying cinders and smoke with it, leaving them coughing and climbing down to the ground as quickly as they could.

When they reached the ground, they all made a run for it, back to the front of the house and stood, facing it.

Fire raged in every window. Because of the stone exterior, no flames were visible outside the house until the fire reached the roof.

Tim hadn't said a word since getting out of the house. Gibbs walked over to him.

"McGee?" he asked.

Tim looked at him, the fire reflected in his eyes, and then turned his attention back on the house.

"Is it over?" he asked.

"Yeah. It's over. Almost."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Epilogue**

They had to stay at the house until the next morning. Their cars wouldn't start. Their phones didn't work. No one was tired, in spite of being up all night long. The fire raged inside the house all through the night, giving them plenty of warmth, at least. Ellie spent most of the night staring at the fire. She just watched as it burned. Ducky sat beside her with a protective arm around her shoulders and said nothing. Tim didn't stare at the house. In fact, he turned away from it and refused to look back through the rest of the night. Anytime someone came near him, he would jump and then breathe deeply but claim he was okay. Gibbs stayed by Tim but didn't say anything, either. He was almost in the position of a bodyguard. Tony and Jimmy kind of migrated between the other two groups throughout the long hours, all the while hoping that they wouldn't see another ghost or shade. Then, strangely, when the first rays of sunlight hit the roof, the fire stopped. The roof collapsed and the entire house fell to the ground in a pile of rubble.

Gibbs pulled out his phone and was a _little_ surprised to see that it worked. But only a little. He called Vance and reported on the fire, their discovery of Jack as the murderer and his death in the fire that had destroyed the entire house, including, regrettably, the body that had initially brought them there. He said nothing about Tim's breakdown, Ellie's possession, or that they had seen ghosts. He did say that the reason for not reporting it sooner was that they'd been trapped inside the house for most of the night when the front door refused to open and that they'd finally discovered the fire escape in the attic. If Vance realized that there was a lot not being said, he had the sense not to ask.

Then, when the police and fire engine got there, they reported again and got permission to leave. Ducky took Tim home with him, determined not to leave Tim alone after everything that had happened. Jimmy offered to let Ellie stay with him and Breena for a few days if she wanted to. She did. Tony and Gibbs went to their own homes, but not without some disquiet.

For Gibbs, it wasn't over until he knew more about why this had happened. In that, he could understand Tim's reaction to the first time. Understanding the cause helped take the power of the event away.

So it wasn't quite over. Not yet.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

 _One week later..._

Tim sat at his desk, staring blankly at his computer screen. One week hadn't really been enough to get him through what had happened. He had tried to pretend that he was over it all, but Gibbs had seen through it very easily. He had let Tim come back to work but had confined him to desk duty. Ellie had been on desk duty for a couple of days as well, but she was now out with Tony working a case.

Jimmy had made a point of stopping by to talk to him every day, and Tim appreciated it. He appreciated the support Jimmy had given when he was falling apart in the house.

Now, though, Tim sat where he was, thinking about how close he had come to insanity. It scared him because he knew that he could have lost his mind completely, just like Landon had. What was it that had led to it? Was it the horror of watching him kill Dan? Had Jack done something else or had he seen the ghosts? He thought about how close he had come to killing Jack. At the thought of Jack, Tim had to take a breath and calm himself down. They had found the charred remains of a body in the rubble of the house. Dental records had identified it as Tim's old roommate. Along with Jack, they had found what remained of the victim who had brought them there the first time, and a couple of other bodies that were unidentified so far.

 _What did Jack see?_

For some reason, that question had clawed at his brain ever since the fire. There had been that one moment when Jack had seemed genuinely frightened by Tim asking him why he had screamed. He had been afraid of something when he'd gone back into the house, too. Tim had heard him screaming again. What scared a serial killer?

There was a hand on his shoulder and he jumped and looked up. Then, he flushed with embarrassment.

"Hey, Boss. I'm fine."

"With me," Gibbs said, not bothering to point out the obvious lie.

Tim nodded and walked with Gibbs to a conference room. Gibbs gestured for Tim to sit and then slid a file across the table to him.

"What's this, Boss?"

"A few answers."

"To what?"

"To the why."

Tim furrowed his brow but opened the file.

"Jack Christensen," Gibbs said. "Formerly James Lee Allan."

Tim looked at it. Then, he looked again.

"He was the owner of the house?" he said, incredulously.

"His parents owned it. They were murdered when he was a teenager. Never figured out who did it. Then, he vanished."

"And appeared as my roommate?"

Gibbs nodded.

"But why?"

"Who knows what started him killing. Maybe it was the house."

"Something scared him," Tim said softly, looking at the file.

"What?"

"I don't know. He was screaming when he was in the house with us. I don't think it was fake. I think it was real. I think something in there scared him as much as us."

"And now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Still scared?"

Tim looked up and then down again.

"Yeah."

"Still talking to Ducky about it?"

"Yeah."

They had decided that Tim needed some help but from someone who knew that he was telling the truth. That narrowed the field pretty much down to Ducky.

"Good."

"What now, Boss?"

"Now, you accept that it happened and keep on. ...and know that you're not the only one."

"The house is gone."

"Yeah. They're starting to haul out the rubble."

"Maybe it can be over for real this time."

"Maybe."

"I'm never going back there, again," he said. "I couldn't do it. I'd fall apart."

"You don't have to. The house is gone and there's no reason to go back." Gibbs paused for a second. "But if there's ever something else that might take us out there, you won't go. Unless you feel like you can."

Tim swallowed and nodded.

"One day at a time, Tim."

"Yeah." Tim nodded.

Then, Gibbs got up and gestured for Tim to come, too.

"And you're not alone in it. Not now. Not ever."

"Thanks."

They walked out and Tim got back to work.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

All that remained in the clearing was the foundation.

The workers had hated being in this area, but the work was done. The clearing was empty.

A sudden wind swept through the area, swirling around the trees, causing the leaves to dance in strange patterns, but not leaving the clearing.

 _Leave us alone..._

Then, it suddenly stopped.

The clearing was still once more.

FINIS!


End file.
